One of the most common artifacts that occurs in printing is dot gain. Dot gain occurs when the size of an ink dot that is printed on a media such as paper, fabric, aluminum, plastic, etc. is larger than desired. Dot gain can occur due to the compression of ink as it is pressed onto the media as well as by the spreading of the ink when absorbed by certain media such as news print, etc. In addition, dot gain can occur as a result of flaws in output devices using the printing process.
Because smaller dots are affected by dot gain more than larger dots, the artifact is particularly noticeable in stochastic screening whereby all the dots that comprise the images are the same size and relatively small. In the past, most methods of compensating for dot gain involved the redistribution and/or removal of a number of dots that are printed. However, the redistribution and/or removal of dots generally reduces the number of dots per unit area, thereby causing a corresponding loss of detail and diminishing the tonal range in there resulting image.
Given the problems associated with dot gain in stochastic printing, there is a need for a mechanism that can compensate for dot gain without removing detail and/or tonal range from an image.